Question 6 of 11 · Before you buy the condo
The Showflat Problem
Are you buying the beautiful showflat — or the actual unit you'll live in?
“The showflat designer's job is to make you fall in love. My job is to help you remember which unit you're actually buying.”
Benny, Best Buy Condo
A showflat is a presentation, and a good one. The discipline is yours, not theirs.
What a showflat is, and isn't
A showflat exists to communicate a possibility clearly and attractively. That's normal marketing and interior design, done well. The problem isn't the showflat — it's that we walk in emotionally and walk out with a memory of a room that isn't quite the one we'll own.
So the job is simple: enjoy the presentation, then mentally strip it back. Mirrors that double a wall. Furniture that has been selected, and sometimes scaled, to suit the space. Built-ins and ID treatments that may not be included. Optional wall configurations. Lighting and styling that no lived-in home sustains.
Then put back what you're actually buying: the dimensions on the official plan, the real orientation and facing, the storage, the windows, the ventilation, the actual floor and outlook of your unit, and where your own furniture physically goes.
Ask directly what is included in the purchase and what is ID or display only, and refer to the official plans and specifications rather than your memory of the room.
What Benny is looking for
Five things I'd check before the feeling fades.
01
Dimensions, not impressions
Read the plan measurements for each room. A room can feel generous and measure modest — and it's the measurement that has to hold your bed and your wardrobe.
02
What's included versus displayed
Wardrobes, feature walls, kitchen extras, loose furniture. Ask which items form part of the unit and which are presentation. Get it in the specification, not the conversation.
03
The layout underneath the styling
Circulation, corridor length, whether the living and dining can coexist, whether doors clash. Styling hides awkwardness remarkably well.
04
Light, ventilation and facing
A showflat is lit by design. Your unit is lit by its orientation, its floor and whatever is next to it. Those are different things.
05
Storage, unglamorously counted
Where do the suitcases, the vacuum, the festive boxes and the bulky kitchen things live? Showflats are famously free of clutter because nobody lives in them.
Where I'd push back
“A beautiful room can distract you from a difficult floor plan.”
Benny, Best Buy Condo
Nobody is being misled here — the room really is that shape. But the version you'll live in has your sofa in it, your laundry, and a wardrobe that isn't part of the package. The showflat shows the ceiling of what the unit can look like. I'd like you to also picture the ordinary Tuesday version.
Draw your real furniture in
The five items
Dining table and chairs, sofa, each bed, wardrobes, and a work desk if you need one. Use your actual sizes, not generic ones.
Real footprint
The leftovers
Now place storage, laundry, the fridge you own, and anything bulky. Note what has nowhere to go.
Honest fit
Why bother?
Because it converts a feeling into a fit. Most layout regrets are discovered at this stage — and it costs nothing to discover them now rather than on moving day.
If your furniture doesn't fit, that isn't automatically a no. It just means you now know what changing homes will really cost you.
Benny's 30-second check
Four questions. Nothing here is saved or sent anywhere.
“Falling in love with a showflat is fine. Just make sure you also know the unit.”
Benny, Best Buy Condo
Where this thought leads
The layout has to work for the household you'll become.
The unit you're offered may not be the one you were shown.
Some of what you loved in the showflat isn't part of the price.
Benny's closing thought
Got a condo in mind? A second pair of eyes on a floor plan is one of the cheapest checks available.
